QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (14:36): Thanks, Senator Cadell. Well, what do you know? In the final sitting week of a six-week block, on the final sitting day before the Farrer by-election, the National Party discover the Murray-Darling Basin.
After months of total silence about this issue, the Farrer by-election is called. The Nats are on track to come fourth, as admitted by their former leader Mr Littleproud. We have had One Nation call for a royal commission into water.
We've had Michelle Milthorpe, the Independent candidate, call for a royal commission into water. So finally the National Party wake from their slumber and have this original idea: let's have a royal commission into water. That is how slow these people are, and this is why Australians are walking away from the National Party in droves, because they have stopped being thought leaders when it comes to regional Australia and they have started becoming thought followers.
They have become a party whose sole reason for existence is to distribute preferences either to the Liberal Party, to a teal Independent or to the One Nation party. The PRESIDENT: Senator McKenzie? Senator McKenzie: On direct relevance, a point of order: the minister has gone nowhere near why the government won't support an inquiry.
The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator McKenzie. I will remind the minister of the question. Senator WATT: The government will not be supporting the National Party's request for a royal commission following One Nation's request for a royal commission following the teal Independent's request for a royal commission.
The PRESIDENT: Senator McKenzie? Senator McKenzie: A point of order, and the minister did do this in his speech this morning: we are not calling for a royal commission. The PRESIDENT: Senator McKenzie, that is not a point of order.
Seriously! Senator WATT: Now Senator Cadell, on behalf of the National Party, has squealed and objected to water buybacks. I can tell you someone in this parliament who likes water buybacks, and his name is Angus Taylor, the Leader of the Opposition.
Who can remember Mr Taylor's involvement in that dodgy $80 million deal signed off by Barnaby Joyce, who used to be a member of the National Party as well? Barnaby Joyce, as the then minister for water, signed off an $80 million deal to buy water from a company linked to Angus Taylor and headquartered in the Cayman Islands. That's how much the Liberal and National parties hate water buybacks: they want to get in on them, especially when there's an $80 million deal at stake.
You have no credibility on water, and that is why Australians are walking away from you. The PRESIDENT: Before I come to Senator Cadell, Minister Watt, I remind you to refer to members in the other place by their correct titles. Senator Cadell, first supplementary?